Ascension - (Alarian Warriors)

Aveyon once again found herself on Alarious, she knew she was dreaming. The once beautiful palace lay in the distance, its crumbled remains looking like an ancient exhibit display. She gazed down the once grassy meadows that lead to the crumbled remnants of her home. Now barren of life, dust, ash and dried soil all that remain. A tree that once would have bloomed cherry-coloured flowers, now a husk of wood stood beside her.

“Girls?” She called.

The three fates must have called her here, no one else would, right? They each materialized before her confirming her assumption. Two of the three had smiles spread across their faces, the third as gloomy as ever.

“How lovely to see you again.” The floating ghostly figure she was most familiar with drifted forward and bowed in greeting.

“It’s about time your plan started moving forward.” The one with her arms crossed over her chest added with a huff.

“I will only be on a small recon mission tomorrow; I wouldn’t call it a step forward.” Aveyon commented with a frown. “Things are not progressing as quickly as I had hoped.”

“On that, at least we agree.” The glum figure unfolded her arms only to move them to her hips. “However, I cannot say that I have not been impressed with your development.” The women avoided meeting her gaze.

Aveyon’s frown deepened; did she just receive a complement? That was unusual, even for the other two sisters it seems, as they both raised a brow their kin. Shaking the oddity off, she got to the point.

“You needed to speak to me?” She questioned knowing they wouldn’t have pulled into this dreamscape otherwise.

The woman in front of her nodded. All three descended, their robes twirling around them as they all proceeded to stand on the ground before her.

“With the journey to Alarious nearing, we thought it best to instruct you on how to free us as soon as we could.” The one closest to her informed.

“I still have to make it to Alarious first, hopefully with Lady Vexous.” She injected, emphasizing the key words.

“The child has a point, aren’t you getting ahead of yourself sister? And we can only reach out to her when our powers allow it, it is too draining.” One asked the other.

Aveyon creased her brows slightly offended at the use of the term child, but she remained silent.

Ignoring the comment, the white figure continued. “You see, when you enter the third realm, we will be cut off from you. If something were to go wrong.” The woman paused, touching her hand to her chest. “I pray it does not. But if it were to happen, we can no longer reach you, just as we can no longer reach our maker.”

The most cheerful of the three stepped forward, her robes twisting around her in a magical display.

“Around here.” She gestured to the tree and the ground. “Is where the fissures normally appear when opened, it is a fair distance from the palace.” They informed her.

Aveyon tilted her head, why did this matter?

“We are sealed to the palace but are not in the palace.”

Aveyon looked completely puzzled, now they were talking in riddles. The one with her hands on her hips shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“That’s far more cryptic than it needs to be. Aveyon, you must reach the palace and we can take you to our prison. Once inside we can perform the ascension, then you can free us. We have access to the palace; you just need to reach it.” She explained.

“Ascension? Wait, why were you locked away in the first place.” This wasn’t the first Aveyon heard of this. Vexous had mentioned it also.

“It is the only way to free us, we must fully awaken your powers and merge your essence with that of Alarious.” They ignored the second question.

Aveyon looked at them disbelieving, narrowing her gaze on them. For all powerful beings to be relying on her, it just stuck her as odd. Why her? Why was she always the only option, it was some kind of cruel joke. “What is it that you three are hiding? It simply cannot be that easy a task.” Her tone was sterner than before, more confident in herself as she spoke to these beings.

Her mind wandered back to the last time they had spoken; they had made her forget something. It only just occurred to her now, she would be able to undo that manipulation with her current abilities... If she wanted to.

“We only kept one thing from you, that one thing, though it is of great consequence to you, you were not ready to know about it. The rest of the information you have not asked about, therefore we have said nothing.” The woman in front of her averted her gaze.

Clearly there were things they were holding back from her. Several months ago, she was a different person, she was weak and fragile. All she had cared about was reaching Alarious to kill the King and end her suffering. But now, she still wanted to face her father, but somehow it felt different. Which father did she want to face?

“My true father, who is he?” She had speculated the answer and was certain she knew it, but they could confirm it.

“It is as you think, your true father is Ashera, but it remains complicated, he is and he is not.” One answered.

It honestly sounded like more riddles to her, they were avoiding the full truth. She gave them a displeasing look, the one that always seemed up herself returned the gaze Before answering the others looking surprised.

“Lady Vexous and Lord Ashera, they have a complicated history of an immense desire for love and power. We do not have access to those memories, we do not know the full story. Only lady Vexous has the true tale. All we can say is that you are of his and her blood line, but like her he is not whole.”

“So, the answers I seek are with Lady Vexous, and I cannot reach her anymore unless I infiltrate the third realm.” She laughed; she had tried astral projecting while training with Erisena, but Ashera had made it a point to safe guard his realm after her first visit. “I see we are back at square one.”

“It would appear so, but you are better prepared for the dangers now then you once were.” One of the women added.

“I am far from ready; I cannot rush this.” Aveyon glanced between the three. “I understand your haste, you are trapped. It is frustrating to have your freedom taken from you, but if I move forward to early, that will be the end for all of us.”

“Not just us, all of the realms.” The women responded as one.

She felt the weight of the world crushing down on her in that moment, her heart sank. She still didn’t want this responsibility. She had all but forgotten about it while her training had been happening. But oddly it wasn’t as suffocating as it once had been. Maybe she was getting used to people expecting more than she could give. Accepting that she could only be herself in the now, what others wanted from her truly didn’t matter.

“I would prefer to avoid thinking about that... I will just focus on preparing myself for struggle yet to come.” She half whispered the last part.

“And that is all I would ask of you, keep going on your current path. The next time we meet will be in person if all goes well.”

Aveyon nodded, and a thought struck her. “Last time we spoke you said you had no names. If I may, I would like to correct that.” She stated.

She looked to the one that was stern and inflexible. “You, I will call Atropos.”

She turned to the most cheerful of the three. “For you, I like Clotho.”

And finally, the one she had grown to like the most. “And for you, I will call Lahkesis.”

They all looked at her strangely. Each blinking as it to trying to understand.

“For short I think I will call you three, Atro, Clo and Lahk.” She concluded with a smile.

“You see it fit to give us names?” Lahk pounded aloud steeping forward with a puzzled look.

“I did not see you as one that would care for such things...” Atro injected with a frown.

“I dunno, I kind of like it.” Clo giggles happily.

“It makes it easier for me to discern between you three, do not take it to heart.” Aveyon reassured.

“Until we meet again, be well.” Lahk said.

“Good luck, you will need it.” Atro Huffed.

“I wish you the best, stay safe!” Clo waved.

The three vanished leaving Aveyon in the deserted wasteland that was once her home. She leant against the dead tree and looked to the mountains over the horizon. There was nobody here at all was there? No Alarian’s were left, no one lived here anymore. That sparked a thought, she searched through her mind for the memory that had been blocked from her.

Her eyes opened wide as she knew once again that her father, the King, was already dead. Something inside her hurt at the missed opportunity to kill him herself. But the memory of her taking the one life, even though it was the life of a slaver, it ate away at her from the inside.

Would she have been able to actually go through with it? Knowing now what she did, the King had been manipulated. It had been Ashera whispering in his ear, had he regretted his actions? How had he actually died? Had he moaned for her and her mother? She guessed she would never know. Her goals however hadn’t changed, even if she couldn’t face the King, her end game was still Alarious she realized.

Once there she would be free from all the realms and its responsibilities, she could rest eternally and lay her mother to rest with her. Truthfully nothing had really changed for her, only her thrust for revenge seemed dulled. Her anger for the King was now solely focused on Ashera, her true enemy.

But if I reach my goal... Vincent’s life is also tied to mine. She couldn’t stop that thought from lingering.